Vegetables to Plant in the Summer

Don’t miss out on vegetables to plant in the summer! Even though planting vegetables in your summer garden can be challenging, it has many benefits and should not be overlooked!

Summer in Zones 9 and 10 is a busy, hot time, and it’s hard to know what vegetables to plant in the summer. If your garden is happy, you should be pumping out tons and tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and more! Although it is a very busy and productive time in the garden, it can also be exhausting. The weather can be very hot during the summer, and your gardening tasks can stack up, leaving you feeling overwhelmed.

It’s important to remember to continue to plant vegetables in your garden throughout the summer so that your harvest does not come to a halt. By planting vegetables in the summer, you can guarantee you will have goodies to harvest come fall.

 What Vegetables to Plant in the Summer

During summertime, continue to succession plant many of the same crops you planted in spring. Succession planting means you plant your crops more than once at different intervals to ensure you always have plants at different stages of maturity. Some of your crops will be baby plants, while others will be ready to harvest. This makes for an even and steady harvest window. Succession plant these crops in the summer:

• Beans
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Melons
• Okra
• Peppers
• Pumpkins
• Squash
• Tomatoes

These vegetables that you plant in the summer are collectively called Warm Season Crops.

If you live in Zones 9 and 10, the warm season is very long, and these plants can continue to produce well into our warm fall months. For those in zones where frost is an issue, you will want to look for varieties that will mature before the first frost takes out your plants. You can also use row cover to extend your growing season and protect your crops.

Deciding what vegetables to plant during the summer can be hard when growing in a hot, dry climate like that of Zones 9 and 10. To make planting vegetables in the summer easier, we have a list of pro-tips to help your summer garden thrive.

  Expert Tips on Summer Growing in Southern California 

• Mulch HEAVILY. Add as much mulch as you can to create a protective layer on top of your soil. This will help keep weeds at bay, keep moisture in your soil, and keep earthworms and microbes in!
• Transplant only during the cool of the evening. Water heavily before transplanting and at the time of transplanting.
• Hang shade cloth over your raised beds or veggie pots during extreme heat to prevent excessive heat burn and wilting.
• Check your garden OFTEN for moisture. If you are hand watering, it may mean you have to hand water daily.

Seed Starting in the Summer

When you start seeds during the summer months that you will plant in your summer garden, keep in mind that high temperatures may require you to begin your seed starting in the shade or even indoors. During the hottest months, we often start our seeds under the shade of a tree or in the coolest part of the garden.

Keep your garden thriving by planting vegetables in your summer garden, and do not fall victim to the common misinformation that you can only plant crops in the spring. A well-tended and successful garden has crops coming to harvest throughout all the frost-free months of the year for you to enjoy in your kitchen!